The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. The newspaper filed the suit in a Federal District Court in Manhattan, claiming that the AI makers are responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” for “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.”
In the filing, The Times says that the companies have used its intellectual property to train large language models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Microsoft is also culpable as the cloud computing partner of OpenAI with its Azure technology.
The Times says that although it “recognizes the power and potential of GenAI for the public and for journalism,” copyright law protects its journalism and content and if OpenAI and Microsoft want to use their work, they need to obtain permission first.
“These tools were built with and continue to use independent journalism and content that is only available because we and our peers reported, edited, and fact-checked it at high cost and with considerable expertise,” The Times said.
The Times is being represented by the litigation firm Susman Godfrey, which previously represented Dominion Voting Systems in its suit against Fox News, resulting in a $787.5 million USD settlement.
